WASHINGTON, DC -- The United States and Singapore will agree November 7 to link high performance networks, allowing collaboration among research institutions in the two nations.

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) very high performance Backbone Network Service (vBNS) and Singapore Internet Next Generation Advanced Research and Education Network (SINGAREN) will foster research relationships in the areas of medicine, manufacturing, education, tele-immersion and architecture.

This is the first trans-Pacific high performance connection for the vBNS. A connection to Canada's high performance network was the first international link. SINGAREN'S physical link will be the NSF-funded Science, Technology And Research Transit Access Point (STAR TAP), which is designed to facilite the long-term interconnection and interoperability of advanced international networking.

The vBNS is a research tool for U.S. universities, managed through a cooperative agreement with MCI. It has a transmission capacity of 622 megabits (mbps) per second and is expected to increase to as much as a few gigabits per second by the year 2000. The average home has less than 30 mbps.

For more information, see http://www.singaren.net.sg/ and http://www.startap.net/

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